Show-case.



T. F. MURPHY.

SHOW CASE.

APPLICATION men MAR. 21. 1915.

1,159,859, Patented'Nov; 9, 1915.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1- INVENTOR Jam, 4 wwz' *W BYW 54M ATTORNEYS T. F. MURPHY.

SHOW CASE.

APPLICATION FILED MAR 27. 1915.

1,159,859, Patented Nov. 9, 1915.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

WITNESSES:

a: n H 5 W ATTORNEYS THOMAS F. MURPHY, QF UTICA, NEW YORK.

SHOW-CASE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented-Nov. 9, 1915;

Application filed March 27, 1915. Serial No. 17,534.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS F. MURPHY, of Utica, in the county of Oneida and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Show-Cases; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, which will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the reference numerals marked thereon, which form part of this specification.

My present invention relates to show cases and especially to that class of show cases which have openings at their rear sides to give access thereto and for which openings closures are desired. With such showcases heretofore there have been serious disadvantages for each sort of closure used. Doors.

much room for their operation, prevent ready and convenient access to the case and are yery liable to bebroken or damaged by the pressure of the person against the door. Doors mounted to slide horizontally prevent access to an adjacent part of the case as long as one such door is open which 4 delay to clerks and customers is a very serious disadvantage in that customers do not like to be delayed or prevented from examining an article because another clerk has opened an adjacent door to wait upon another customer. For the same reason doors that Slide downward from their usual closed position are a disadvantage as the space below the show case is usually utilized for drawers or other compartments to hold stock. The lowering of such a drop door will prevent the opening of these drawers or prevent access to shelves or compartments below the main, show case, and also renders the door more liable to be broken. Furthermore, with these sliding over-lapping doors there is considerable danger of a persons fingers being pinched or. of goods beingdamaged. As most of these closures are usually constructed of glass or mirrors. the jar incident to sliding doors, especially to drop sliding doors, often breaks said glass or mirrors.

The purpose of my invention is to provide a show case having a closure for the rear opening, which avoids the various disadvantages above mentioned. I

A, further purpose of my invention is to provide a show case of the clax described which is simple in construction, convenient and safe in operation and not likely to get out of order when used.

A further purpose of my invention is to provide a show case having a flexible curtain adapted to close the rear'opening of the case and adapted to be moved downwardly therefrom and to 'a position beneaththe fioor or bottom of the show case. It will be seen thatv such a construction provides a convenientclosure which may be opened without simultaneously preventing access in another part of the case or of adjacent cases.

A further purpose of my invention is to provide in combination with such flexible curtain closure mirrors upon the front side of the strips composing said curtain so that the usual and desired appearance of such show case maybe still maintained.

Further objects of my invention will appear from the specification and claims hereinafter set forth.

Figure 1 is an isometric projection of a show case embodying my invention, certain parts of the case being broken away to more clearly show its construction. Fig. 2 is a horizontal sectional view on an enlarged scale through a rear post and two flexible curtains as on line 22 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a front view on a similar scale of the parts shown in Fig. 2, certain parts being broken away to more clearly show the construction. Fig. 4 is a perpendicular sectional view on line 44: of Fig. 3, but With the section extended upwardly to show the upper edge of the curtain and the fixed and movable parts of the case at its upper rear edge. Fig. 5 is a rear view of one of the clips 33.. Fig. 6

is a horizontal sectional view similar to Fig. 2 but showing the mirror holding clips farther out'upon the curtain.

'Referring to the, drawings in a more particular description, there is shown a show case having a frame composed of rear corner posts or uprights 10, intermediate rear posts 11. front co rne'r posts 12, upper and lower side pieces 13 and 14 respectively, upper and lowervfro-nt rails 1b and 16 respectively,

the said parts of the frame being secured to each other in any desired way and having mounted therein the top glass 17, end glasses 19 and front glass 20, as commonly found in such articles. Intermediate bottom rails 21 extend forward from eachintermediate upright post 11. In the lower part of the case, conveniently on a level with the upper side of the end rails 14 and intermediate rails 21 and forward rail 16, there is provided and conveniently rested upoii 'said members a floor 22. Below said floor here is provided a shallow recess 23 extending the length of the show case if it be a onesection show case or extending the length of each section of the show case if, as suggested in Fig. 1, there be more than one section to the show case.

For convenience of description herein the term section is used to denote those parts of the case which have separate openings at their rear side and separate closures therefor.

The recess 23 below the floor 22 will preferably be inclosed by a bottom 24 which may be conveniently secured to the lower side of the bottom end. rails 14, intermediate bottom rails 21 and front bottom rail 16. Along the rear upper edge of the show case extend from the corner posts 10 and intermediate posts 11, a permanently fixed rail 25 and a removably secured rail 26 for the purposes hereinafter mentioned.

The show case. thus far described has an opening at;its rear side or a separate opening at the rear side of each section if, as-

indicated in Fig. 1,the show case be composed of more than one section. Through such rear side opening or openings access is had to the interior of the show case. As a closure for each of such rear openings, there is provided a curtain 27 composed of relatively narrow thin strips 28 flexibly connected to each other at their sides as by securely fastening the forward surfaces of said strips to a strong piece of canvas or similar fabric 29 while the opposite ends of said strips 28 are slidingly mounted in guide-ways 30 provided "on the oppositely disposed sides of the rear corner posts 10 or intermediate rear posts 11 of each section of the show case. and which guide-ways toward the'bottom of said up rights are curved forwardly and extend toward the front of each section of the show case in the oppositely disposed sides of lower side pieces 14 and intermediate bottom rails,

21, as plainly indicated in the drawings herein.- The said guide-ways may most conveniently Y be composed of grooves in the sides of said upright and said horizontal members, the uprightgand horizontal grooves being connected at their adjacent ends by a curved portion of as large a radius as practical in order that the flexible curtain may move to and fro in said guide-ways as easily as possible. Preferably also thestrips 28 at their rear side will have their corners removed or the said strips will be more or less rounding at their rear sides, as clearly indi" cated in Fig. 4 so as to slide more easily in the guide-ways and particularly to pass around the curved portion of the guide-Ways without cramping. Preferably the upper strip 28 of the flexible curtain 27 will be Wider and thicker than the other strips 28 in order to stiffen the upper edge of the cur tain and to provide a convenient rearward projection beyond the body of the curtain to serve as a handle in lifting the curtain to raised position or lowering it from raised position. In the upper strip of the-removable curtain is provided a spring catch, the latch 31 of which shown in Fig. 1 will in an obvious manner engage a shoulder (not shown) provided in the lower side of the re movable back rail 26.

The removably secured rail 26 is at the rear of the fixed rear rail 25 and is of such width as to extend slightly forward of the forward edge of the guide-ways 30 in the uprights 10 and 11, so that uponsaid rail 26 being removed the flexible curtain 27 may be removed from the show case or inserted therein without said curtain or any of its attached parts striking the fixed rail 25 which forms the rear support for the top glass 17.

It will now be seen that I have provided a show case having a rear opening and closure therefor composed of a flexible curtain which may be raised to upper or substan' tially upright position to close said openthe show case, said closure not only moves "away from its own opening but does not move in front of adjacent sections of the show case either to the side of the section being opened or beneath or above. It will be obvious therefore that in a show case embodying my invention adjacent sections of a show case may be independently operated 1 without interfering with the access toany other section and Without shutting off access to the space below the showcase customarily occupied by shelves or drawers, thus allow mg any number of clerks'to work at a show case without delaying or interfering with one another.-

In order to make this flexible curtain. assist in showing off the goods in the case and lighting them by reflected light as is done with a large mirror on the usual solid rear closure, I provide upon the forward side of the said curtain a series of closely arranged mirrors 32, which mirrors are of sugistanti'aTly the width of the strips 28 an of a length nearly as great as the length of said strips. These mirrors are so placed upon and fastened to the curtain that each mirror coincides with a strip 28, or, in other words,

turn between the upright and horizontalpath of the sliding curtain, the forward or front upper and lower edges of the mirrors are cut away or beveled as at 41.

As a convenient and preferred way of securing the long mirrors 32 to the curtain 27, clips 33 are provided having their base portion 3 1 removably secured to the strips 28, as by means of screws 34 and having an outwardly turned or step portion 35 bearing against the end edges of the mirrors and an over-hanging portion 36 engaging the front of the mirrors near their ends. hanging portions 36 hold the mirrors against the-"curtain and the pressure from said over-hanging portion, together with the engagement of the step portion 35 of the clip, prevents endwise motion of the mirrors.

. Lateral movement of the mirrors upon the curtain is prevented by the end corners of the mirror being trimmed off leaving slanting edges 37 at the upper and lower side of each end, as particularly shown in Fig. 3 of the drawings, which slanting edges are engaged by downturned flanges 38 upon the upper and lower edge of the over-hanging portion 36 of the clip, as the parts are viewed in Fig. 3. The engagement ofthese flanges with the mirror afford a further means of preventing any endwise movement of the mirrors. a As shown in Figs. 2 and 3, the clips 3 have their base portions countersunk into recesses 39 provided mostly in those portions of the front of the strips 28 that come within the grooves forming the guide-ways30. In

this way the bases of the clips do not interremoved from the case by drawing it upward therefrom. Then the clips holding the broken mirror will be removed, the old Said overmirror removed and a'new one inserted, the

clips screwed own thereagainst and the curtain replaced in the case and then the back rail 26 fastened in position.

One of the advantages of having the back closure provided with a series of small mirrors is that in case of an accident only the broken sections of the mirror need to be replaced instead of a large mirror the size of the closure as would be the case with solid sliding or swinging doors.

In Fig. 6 is shown a modification of the location of the clips 33. In this construction the bases of the clips are secured to the strips 28 outside of the grooves forming the guide-Ways 30. While this modification brings the whole clip into sight, it has the advantage of allowing a clip to be removed I to replace a mirror upon the curtain without removing the curtain from the case. This may be done by a person slightly lowering the curtain and reaching into the case over the upper edge of the curtain and applying the necessary tool tothe clip, or by reaching in from an adjacent rear opening in-case one of the lower mirrors be broken.

The series of mirrors 32 when the curtain is wholly or partly raised will lie so closely in the same plane as to operate as a single mirror so that a customer may see the back of an article by means of said mirrors as is now the case with a solid mirror, the narrow beveled portions 11 not being of suflicient width to interfere with this function of the mirrors.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

The combination of a show case having an opening in its rear side and a recess beneath the floor of the case, a curtain composed of rigid strips flexibly connected to each other at their sides and having-their .ends slidingly mounted in the case, mirrors of substantially the width and length of said rigid strips and placed separately in front thereof and fasteners removably securing said mirrors to the strips, said curtain with its attached mirrors being adapted to be raised to close the said rear opening or to be the floor of thecasel In witness whereof I have afiixed my signature, in the presence of two witnesses, this 18th day of March 1915.

THOMAS F. MURPHY.

. Witnesses:

HARRIET WILLIAMS, S. E. HOOKS.

lowered therefrom into the recess beneath 

